cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57455538
The government is reportedly walking back promises to fund major projects for national train operator Deutsche Bahn. DB is beset by chronic punctuality problems, decrepit infrastructure, and a lack of investment.
Since coming into power in early 2025, the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz has repeatedly promised to fund major rail projects that had already been planned. Of the €500 billion ($585 billion) in controversial new debt taken on by his administration€150 billion was earmarked for train work.
Indeed, Merz said several times over the course of 2025 that “everything with finished plans will be built.” However, the government appears to have quietly backed out of some of those promises, while simultaneously shifting more money towards building new highways.
The issues run deeper, Kaas Elias explained, than just these most recent cuts. “Unfortunately, the federal government has taken a step backward when it comes to public transport,” he said. For example, the Deutschlandticket for regional public transport across the country has transformed from a €9 a month COVID-19 era mega-success to €63 a month as of January 2026.
If I remember correctly back when that was announced, and there was some discussion on Reddit about it, that was intended from the beginning to be a temporary program.
searches
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschlandticket
The Deutschlandticket (Deutschlandticket, lit. ‘Germany ticket’), also known as the D-Ticket, is a monthly subscription for local and regional public transport valid throughout Germany. It was introduced in May 2023 by the Scholz cabinet as the successor to the temporary 9-Euro-Ticket offered in summer 2022.
WP says it was temporary too.
It was, but the ticket had been an overwhelming success that saw many people use the train that would use their car before. So afterwards by popular demand similar programs were launched, but ultimately we are a car country ruled by out of touch dipshits, as everywhere else, so we divest from the good and reasonable thing and instead double down on cars, again.
